A sign in front of the Waverly Business Center lists the New England Compounding Center and other business in Framingham, Mass. / Marshall Wolff / File / The MetroWest Daily News /

Written by

Walter F. Roche Jr.

The Tennessean

Attorneys for the Nashville clinic where dozens of patients were injected with a tainted steroid say that many more suits may be filed against their clients and they want all the cases, including the two already filed, to be merged before a single judge.

In a motion filed Wednesday in Davidson Circuit Court, attorneys for the Saint Thomas Outpatient Neurosurgical Center asked that the presiding judge assign the current and future cases to a single circuit or chancery court judge. The motion also was filed on behalf of the Howell Allen Clinic, which is a codefendant in the two recent suits.

“Many more suits may well be filed. It is certainly reasonable to expect that each suit will involve one or more questions of common fact,” the two-page motion states.

The move for consolidation of local cases follows recent action merging cases in federal court stemming from the same fungal meningitis outbreak, which has caused 14 deaths among Tennessee patients.

The tainted steroids, state and federal regulators say, were shipped from the New England Compounding Center, which is the primary defendant in the federal court cases.

The Massachusetts drug firm filed for bankruptcy late last year.

Recent filings in that bankruptcy case show that the owners of the company have some $20 million in personal bank and investment accounts that are subject to a freeze imposed by a federal judge. The frozen funds could eventually become available to creditors, including Tennessee victims and their families.

According to those filings, NECC shareholder Carla Conigliaro has a $10 million investment account with Charles Schwab. Bank of America reported it had a total of $6.59 million in the names of Barry Cadden, Lisa Conigliaro Cadden, Gregory Conigliaro and Carla Conigliaro.

The Middlesex Savings Bank reported it had a $1.9 million account in the name of Gregory Conigliaro and an account with just under $1.5 million in the name of Carla Conigliaro.

Randy Kinnard, the Nashville attorney representing several local victims, said the size of the bank and investment accounts didn’t surprise him at all.

Attorneys for the creditors sought the freeze or attachment of up to $21 million in assets after filings showed that in the year before the bankruptcy, some $21 million in payments were made to stockholders or affiliated companies. All of the company stock is owned by members of the Cadden and Conigliaro families.

National toll at 47

Also this week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 707 patients nationwide have become infected by fungus-tainted steroid since the outbreak began last fall. One new death was reported in Indiana, pushing the nationwide total to 47.